Wednesday in an interview at this week's conference.

Worden told The Associated Press: "I would certainly expect in the next fou r or five years we'd have an Earthsized planet in the habitable (可居住的) zone."

语篇解读：天文学家说，他们即将在其他恒星周围找到类似地球的行星，在那里生命可以形成，或者可能已经形成。到那时候就可以回答人类在宇宙中是否孤单这一问题了。

5．From the first two paragraphs we can learn ________.

A．astronomers has found planets like Earth orbiting other stars

B．finding other stars is a key step in determining if we are alone

C．it's possible that a planet like Earth will be found this year

D．scientists say that life have developed on the first Earth­like planet

解析：选C　细节理解题。根据第二段最后一句"A planet close to the size of Earth could even be found sometime this year."一颗类似地球的行星可能在今年的某个时候被发现。故答案为C。

6．According to the passage an exoplanet is a planet ________.

A．like Earth

B．outside our solar system

C．orbiting the sun

D．where life have developed

解析：选B　细节理解题。根据第三段"'exoplanets' - those outside our solar system"可得出答案。

7．The underlined words "get to the bottom of" in Paragraph 4 probably mean "________".

A．understand fully　　 　 　B．make full use of

C．search for D．do more research on

解析：选A　词义猜测题。西蒙这句话的意思是：我们第一次有了乐观的看法，在我们的有生之年，我们将能弄清这个问题的真相。get to the bottom of"弄清真相，彻底弄明白"。

8．From the passage we can learn ________.

A．an Earth­like planet has been found

B．it's been proved we are not alone in the universe

C．Jose Funes has found the meaning of the human race in the universe

D．the discovery of an Earth­like planet could happen in the near future

解析：选D　推理判断题。通读全文可知，天文学家们认为在不久的将来，他们将在其他恒星周围找到类似地球的行星，证明人类在宇宙中并不孤单。

E lon Musk says Space X is developing a plan for trips to Mars (火星) that will eventually cost just D|S500,000 per seat. Musk founded Space X 10 years ago and space travel has always been one of his goals for the company. Few details were provided about the M artian voyage, but Musk did say we can expect to hear more about the plan in less than a year.

The price for a trip to Mars also highlights (突出) Musk's main effort behind Space X, to bring down the cost of delivering a human into space. In an interview with the BBC, Musk admitted that the first seats won't be selling for D|S500,000. It will take a while